Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Our company got hit with a major virus outbreak on Friday night, so I've spent all my waking hours since coordinating efforts to get it under control...and plan for the April 1/Conflicker virus...hoping for a miracle...maybe someday I can craft again...I have a metal clay bracelet that I haven't had a chance to fire yet...ugh!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

I won samples of different color UTEE from Roni at Inkstains and they arrived to day. Great shades of pink, light blue, dark blue, white, gold, copper and black! I can't wait to try them out...but alas, my real job calls today...major virus outbreak...been awake since 11:30pm yesterday...must...have...coffee...

I've also been working on a project with a really neat technique, but I can't show it until after the 3rd. It's for my friend, Jill, who's birthday is on the 3rd. She's have an art showing with the Pastel Society and then we are all going to a birthday dinner for her.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

This is a Native American collage that I created for my mom. The collage is on a 5x7 hard canvas that has been inked with Faded Jeans Distress ink. The images were printed in B&W on an inkjet printer then I soaked them with water and blotted until I got the faded look I wanted. I tore the image and inked the edges with Faded Jeans Distress ink and glued them to the canvas. I stamped the petroglyph images with stamps by Judith Dupre (I love these stamps). Some were stamped in Faded Jeans Distress ink and the others were embossed with Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder. I molded the arrow head from stucco and inked it with Vintage Photo Distress ink. The peace stick is a twig from our grape vines wrapped in tan embroidery floss with 3 feathers attached to the end. The frame is covered in leather scraps that I bought at a shop in Walsenburg, CO. I bought a $3 unfinished wooden 5x7 frame at Michaels and attached the pieces of leather with leather glue starting with the corners. This was my first attempt at working with leather and it was pretty fun. I just used what I had, but it would have been nice to have incorporated some blue into the frame...oh well...mom will like it anyway. :-)

Monday, March 23, 2009

This weekend we had a wine tasting at our friends house. Kay did all the research on how it should run and created score sheets. Each couple brought a bottle of red and white wine from a pre-chosen country. None of us knew what we were doing, but had a great time!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

My PC has been saved! I can finally post the card I made my friend, Angie, who retired from the Air Force last Friday! I cut out the design on the Cricut using SCAL and an svg file kindly shared by Dennis. The cut design was placed over blue cardstock and I used the Plantin Schoolbook cart to cut out RETIRED! I must admit, the exclaimation point was added when I realized I had attached the letters a little too far to the left. :-)

Monday, March 16, 2009

I still had some photos on the camera, so I can post a Photo 52 for this week despite the horror of my crashed PC! During my trip east to visit my brother, he asked me to photograph his co-ed touch football team. I've never done any action/sports photography before and thought I wouldn't like it, but what the heck. I had a blast!! This is a photo of my brother, Sam, in his little uniform.

My main PC has crashed!!!! I'm running diagnostics and hopefully can repair the errors. Since that is where I store all my photos, I'm in a mild panic right now. I just returned from a long weekend visiting my brother, Sam, in PA (near Philly) and before I could upload my Photo 52 pic and post it...CRASH!!!

Monday, March 9, 2009

This week we gathered at Kay's to do some card making. I created 2 cards and a postcard. I can't show 2 of them because they are for Easter and I don't want the recipients to see them early. :-) Below is a photo of our group...sans me...and a photo of one of the cards I made.

These are the remaining ATCs I made for the bizarre March holidays swap on ATCsforall. I chose Alfred Hitchcock Day (which is 12 March, BTW) because who doesn't like a good Hitchcock classic?! I picked Psycho (of course), The Birds and The Rear Window. For Psycho, I used a background made with pattern paper that I recieved from the Message in a Bottle exchange on GoMakeSomething. I created a silouette of Norman with a silver knife. The text is printed onto regular printer paper, inked with Tea Dye Distress Ink, crinkled, highlighted with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, ironed and torn. The Birds was made using a text background paper and stamps from Inkadinkadoo. The text was printed and inked with Faded Jeans Distress Ink. The Rear Window was made using a portion of Cricut cutfile from the FrugalCrafter. I inked it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and glued it over a background created with the wrinkle free Distress Ink technique. The images are from the Paris Moments stamp from Hampton Art Stamps. I colored them with Distress Ink and a water brush, cut them out and glue one in each window frame. The text is printed and inked with Tea Dye and Weathered Wood Distress Inks.

Friday, March 6, 2009

This is the first card for the March Bizarre Holiday ATC swap on ATCsforall. I used the latest Cuttlebug Challenges technique to create the background and decided this is my new favorite technique. Basically, you watercolor the background then emboss your design...but before you run the embossing folder thru, you ink up the design on the folder. The result is an awesome background with great detail. On this card, I used Lumiare watercolors and Pine Needles Distress Ink on the florial screen embossing folder. The pig is from an old calendar I had. I decided to have it look like it was jumping out of the bushes. I just created the same background on another piece of watercolor paper, cut out some 'leaf' detail and glued it over the back of the pig. The label is just a piece of watercolored paper and marker. I have an annoying habit of thinking things need borders, so I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to ink in a border around the card.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

I've altered this box in such a way that it meets the challenges for Lots To Do (alter something), Awfully Big Art Adventure (alter a box), Ooh-La-La (stripes) and Creative Inspirations Challenge (numbers). Whew!!! This is a box that holds my Cuttlebug folders, so I naturally used many dry embossed elements...my favorite was applying Distress Inks to the Cuttlebug folder and embossing the numbers and butterfly. The chipboard letters were from the blog candy I won from the Ingenious Inkling blog and the images are cut on my Cricut.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

My blog candy from Ingenious Inkling has arrived!!! What a great surprise! When Stephanie does something, she does it big! Look at all the great stuff I recieved...including a beautiful card. She has a great blog, so you should hop on over.

Monday, March 2, 2009

We went on a hike yesterday with our friends, John & Jill, from Shubarth Trail to Rampart Reservoir. Of course, the dog brigade (Wiley, Delilah, Noel & Albert) came with us. We always stop for a coffee/tea break and Bo decided to relax a bit. He used Delilah as a pillow...Albert & Noel used him as a pillow...